By Professor D. E. HUGHES, F.R.S., Vice-President.
NEUTRALITY.
The apparatus needed for researches upon evident external polarity requires no very great skill or thought, but simply an apparatus to measure correctly the force of the evident repulsion or attraction; in the case of neutrality, however, the external polarity disappears, and we consequently require special apparatus, together with the utmost care and reflection in its use.
From numerous researches previously made by means of the induction balance, the results of which I have already published, I felt convinced that in investigating the cause of magnetism and neutrality I should have in it the aid of the most powerful instrument of research ever brought to bear upon the molecular construction of iron, as indeed of all metals. It neglects all forces which do not produce a change in the molecular structure, and enables us to penetrate at once to the interior of a magnet or piece of iron, observing only its peculiar structure and the change which takes place during magnetization or apparent neutrality.
The induction balance is affected by three distinct arrangements of molecular structure in iron and steel, by means of which we have apparent external neutrality.
Fig 1 shows several polar directions of the molecules as indicated by the arrows. Poisson assumed as a necessity of his theory, that a molecule is spherical; but Dr. Joule's experimental proof of the elongation of iron by one seven-hundred and-twenty-thousandth of its length when magnetized, proves at least that its form is not spherical; and, as I am unable at present to demonstrate my own views as to its exact form, I have simply indicated its polar direction by arrows--the dotted oval lines merely indicating its limits of free elastic rotation.
In Fig. 1, at A, we have neutrality by the mutual attraction of each pair of molecules, being the shortest path in which they could satisfy their mutual attractions. At B we have the case of superposed magnetism of equal external value, rendering the wire or rod apparently neutral, although a lower series of molecules are rotated in the opposite direction to the upper series, giving to the rod opposite and equal polarities. At C we have the molecules arranged in a circular chain around the axis of a wire or rod through which an electric current has passed. At D we have the evident polarity induced by the earth's directive influence when a soft iron rod is held in the magnetic meridian. At E we have a longitudinal neutrality produced in the same rod when placed magnetic west, the polarity in the latter case being transversal.
In all these cases we have a perfectly symmetrical arrangement, and I have not yet found a single case in well-annealed soft iron in which I could detect a heterogeneous arrangement, as supposed by Ampere, De la Rive, Weber, Wiedermann, and Maxwell.
We can only study neutrality with perfectly soft Swedish iron. Hard iron and steel retain previous magnetizations, and an apparent external neutrality would in most cases be the superposition of one magnetism upon another of equal external force in the opposite direction, as shown at B, Fig. 1. Perfectly soft iron we can easily free, by vibrations, from the slightest trace of previous magnetism, and study the neutrality produced under varying conditions.
